Vikings prepare to welcome Danielle Hunter, Stefon Diggs back to Minnesota

The last time before this year that Danielle Hunter and Stefon Diggs were teammates, they were key players for the most recent Vikings team to win a playoff game.

Those 2019 Vikings, after upsetting the New Orleans Saints, were dismantled a week later by San Francisco — where DeMeco Ryans was already rising on the staff as an inside linebackers coach.

Ryans would become the 49ers’ defensive coordinator in 2021, matching wits with the Rams offensive coordinator at the time: Kevin O’Connell.

O’Connell got the Vikings’ head coaching position in 2022, a job for which Ryans interviewed once before withdrawing from a second interview.

Ryans ended up getting the Texans’ job a year later, leading Houston to a division title in his first year just as O’Connell had done a year earlier with the Vikings.

Hunter and Diggs joined Ryans in Houston this year; three of last year’s prominent Texans, Blake Cashman, Jonathan Greenard and Shaq Griffin, signed with the Vikings and are keying a defensive resurgence.

All of which is a detailed way of saying: There are a lot of connections between these two franchises, who have played each other only five times. (The Vikings have won all five.)

How do those connections influence the preparation and emotion leading up to a Sunday meeting at U.S. Bank Stadium between the teams, both 2-0 and leading their respective divisions?

“These are good football players you’re talking about at both spots,” O’Connell said Wednesday. “Both organizations are aware of the impact those guys can have on the game. What I think is the coolest part is just seeing the growth, the fit at the new destinations. Danielle, Kris Boyd, some of these players that are thriving under DeMeco and the Texans. And then I’d like to think that JG, Cash and Shaq are doing the same things here.”

O’Connell saw Hunter’s contributions firsthand the last two years when the ferocious pass rusher accounted for 27 sacks, including 16.5 a year ago. Given a chance to test free agency, Hunter — who grew up in suburban Houston — signed a two-year deal worth $48 million guaranteed with the Texans.

Hunter had 1.5 sacks and two tackles for a loss in last week’s 19-13 win over the Bears.

“If it wasn’t going to be here, I wanted him to find a great place to go play and continue kind of what he did in 2023. And I think he found a great home, literally in his hometown,” O’Connell said. “You just see him. It’s the same guy who’s an absolute game-wrecker, disrupter. How they play really fits his skill set.”

Diggs forced his way out of Minnesota after that 2019 season, leading to the win-win trade with Buffalo that netted the draft pick the Vikings used on Justin Jefferson in 2020. After four successful but sometimes turbulent years in Buffalo, Diggs was traded again to Houston this offseason. He has 10 catches for just 70 yards so far this season, but two of those catches went for touchdowns in a Week 1 win over the Colts.

It will be interesting to see what sort of reaction Diggs — who caught the Minneapolis Miracle, among other memorable moments, during his five years in purple — gets on Sunday in his first game back at U.S. Bank Stadium since his time with the Vikings.

Less in doubt is the reaction the former Texans-turned Vikings players will receive. Cashman, the Eden Prairie native and former Gopher, has been a seamless fit in Brian Flores’ defense. Greenard already has 12 quarterback pressures for a refreshed Vikings pass rush. Griffin has helped stabilize the Vikings’ cornerback group.

They, too, might have something to prove against their former team. That said, familiarity is common in the NFL. “I think there’s going to be five, maybe six guys that I’ve personally coached that are on [Houston] – maybe more considering my coach journey,” said O’Connell, also reminding us that we are only a few days removed from the Sam Darnold vs. his old team story line.

“In the end, you’ve just got to go play and every snap is its own,” O’Connell added. “How many of them can you go win regardless of whether you’ve played for the Texans or the Vikings or whatever it’s been.”

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